Liverpool's 1-1 draw with Chelsea on Saturday night centred around a key moment of controversy.With the Blues striding towards the half-time interval with a 1-0 lead courtesy of Kai Havertz's superb header, everything changed in a flash when Reece James was awarded a red card.A quick VAR check from referee Anthony Taylor saw it deemed that the Chelsea defender had handled the ball on the goal-line, duly leading to his dismissal and a penalty for Liverpool.

James' red card vs Liverpool

Mohamed Salah made no mistake from the penalty spot to draw the scores level and although the visitors ultimately held on with 10 men, it most certainly hampered their chances of victory.

It really did make for a dramatic few minutes and regardless of whether you think it was a penalty or not, you'd be pretty heartless not to at least have a grain of sympathy for James.

After all, unless the former Wigan Athletic man is secretly an Oscar-winning actor, there's little to no reason to think that he deliberately used his arm to prevent Liverpool from scoring an equaliser.

"LIVERPOOL ARE NOT TITLE CONTENDERS" (Football Terrace)

Reaction to Chelsea's red card

Yes, we're well aware that James' intentions have no bearing on the decision or not, but the point remains that it was a crushing blow for a player who started the season with real gusto and form.

As such, all things considered, James did pretty well to keep his cool  - beyond a few bemused looks and generally asking Taylor what on earth had just happened - once he found out the news.

And what makes that all the more impressive is the reaction of Sadio Mane with more and more fans starting to notice the amusing response of the Liverpool star to James being sent off.

Mane's amusing reaction

Viral footage on Twitter shows Mane talking, gesturing and touching James mere seconds after Taylor had flashed him a red card as though to explain why the decision had been reached.

It's impossible to know exactly what Mane might have been saying to his Chelsea rival, but it's entirely possible to work out why Kopites love the footage so much, so be sure to check it out:

Fans absolutely loved it

It's the facial expressions that get us. Lovely work, Sadio.

What did Mane say?

While there's only so much that we can infer from the interaction, it's certainly amusing to imagine that Mane started to explain: "Well, Reece, according to Law 345 in the FA Handbook of 2021/22..."

In reality, of course, we can probably infer that it's the loveable status quo in football where a decision given against you is always a disgrace and one given for you is bang on the money.

ENTER GIVEAWAY

At the end of the day, Taylor seemed to handle the situation correctly in accordance with the laws of game, but whether incidents like that should be punished with red cards is a different question entirely.